Venezuelan FM urges UN Security Council to reject use of force

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza speaks to the United Nations Security Council meeting on Venezuela February 26, 2019, at the United Nations in New York City. (Photo by AFP)

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has accused the US of trying to intervene in the Latin American country militarily, urging the UN Security Council to reject any use of force against the country.

Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Arreaza said the US-led campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro had failed.

"That was the last chapter in the coup on Saturday," he said. "Read my lips - it failed. Now is the time for us to return to sanity."

In the same meeting, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia accused Washington of seeking to topple President Maduro through military intervention, adding that the US’ policy toward Venezuela is tantamount to violating international law.

He supported Arreaza and questioned what other countries would have done if confronted with "an attempted illegal state border crossing for the delivery of unknown cargo."

Turning to the US, he pointedly noted, "One country even wants to build a huge wall on the border of another country to prevent an illegal border crossing."

Maduro on Tuesday said US President Donald Trump is surrounded by “bad” officials who are advising him during the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in the country.

“I fear the people that are around him,” Maduro told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

“I think these people surrounding President Trump and advising him on Venezuelan policies are bad, and I think that at one point, President Trump will have to say ‘stop, stop, we have to see what happens with Venezuela,’ and change his politics.”

The comments come a day after the Trump administration ramped up sanctions to pressure Maduro to leave office and allow Juan Guaidó, an opposition leader the US and other world powers recognize as Venezuela’s interim president, to take power.

Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, 35, who is also the head of Venezuela’s defunct National Assembly, plunged the country into political chaos on January 23, when he proclaimed himself as the “interim president” of Venezuela, a bizarre move that drew US President Donald Trump’s immediate support and prompted the White House to call on other countries to follow suit in recognizing Guaido as such.

The US-backed opposition figure has also planned to bring in foreign humanitarian aid, including those from the US through the Colombian border, to allegedly alleviate the country's economic crisis.

Maduro has said the real incentive behind Guaido’s “relief” effort is to undermine his government in a Washington-orchestrated bid to oust him, stressing that Caracas would not allow the entry of the so-called aid to Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.